


Countin' Down the Days Till I Die

by Zebooboo



Series: ShinDrift Weeks [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Blood, I'm Sorry, M/M, i wasn't brave enough for smut, some mild choking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 10:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19423774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zebooboo/pseuds/Zebooboo
Summary: "How can you trust them like that?""I have to."General entry for ShinDrift Week 2019 from ActualHurry here and twitter.





	Countin' Down the Days Till I Die

**Author's Note:**

> It's 23'32 on the clock Sunday night for me!! I made it for ShinDrift week! q-q

Drifter wasn't in the Annex when Shin swang by. The gate was closed and the lights out with only the swirling luminance of the bank casting odd shadows around. He wasn't used to this setting. No Drifter smirking at the players coming in for bounties, or shooting wary looks over his shoulder at him, or clever fingers circling his waist, carefully guiding him to the shadows in the back.

It immediately set him on edge, even when he knew Drifter was probably up at the Derelict for some shut-eye or conducting a match. But a quick check showed that match sign ups were closed, with a hurried notice that Gambit will be up by morning.

Shin frowned behind his helmet and sent Drifter a ping. Gambit closing up for more than a couple of hours was almost unheard of, Drifter ran a tight schedule with his matches and only closed up for serious business. Business Shin's heard nothing about. Not from Drifter, not from the Shadows, not even from any of his other contacts. Made him antsy.

His feet take him away from the closed gate, past Ada-1's side entrance and upwards to the Bazzar and Drifter's old haunt. His ping was being ignored, might as well check there too.

The bustle of the place gave him a bit of a pause, too used to his own company and in limited contact with other people. He shrugged it off, pulled his cloak back into place and walk off to the dingy alley.

The grate is low, but still open, so he nudges it upwards a bit so he can duck under and close it behind him after shooting a cautionary look around for snoopers. He turns the corner to find Drifter leaning against the table he's pushed against the wall, worrying a coin in his fingers with a scowl on his face.

He glares at Shin when he stops in front of him. "What'cha want? I ain't in the mood to entertain ya, so kindly piss off."

Shin cocks his head but doesn't budge. Drifter's snappy but there's a definite edge of worry colouring his voice that Shin almost never hears and pretends he never does. It's much easier on both of them, but for once Shin doesn't think he's the cause of it.

"Something's on your mind." It came out halfway between statement and question. If Drifter has something worrying him then either he takes care enough to not have it be a problem, or their Guardian gets called up to straighten things out.

But this time Drifter is sitting back, doing nothing and Shin knows for a fact their Guardian is in the City these days. Shin crosses his arms and meets Drifter's glare with a frown of his own, though the other can't see it.

Drifter draws back when Shin doesn't back down or leave. He darts a quick look at the coin he's been dragging along his fingers before he tucks it away and rubs a hand down his face and it settles across his mouth, still pulled in a frown. The fact that the rogue Lightbearer actually looks at one of his coins while doing one of his tricks says more about his state of mind than any answer Shin can drag out of him.

Slowly Shin reaches up to take off his helmet and transmat it away. He walks to the wall across Drifter and leans against it and crosses his arms, waiting for Drifter to bring himself back together.

A bitter chuckle makes Shin look back at Drifter, who's dropped his hands and a bitter, sardonic smile pulling his face into something ugly. "Ain't nothing worse than knowing you're dragging people that trust you down, is there?"

Shin turns to look away with a small grunt, he doesn't have an answer to that. He hears Drifter scoff and push off the table. He looks over to find the other man walking away towards the exit.

"Can't say I expected you to have any experience with that, The Man With The Golden Gun always does things on his own don't he?" Shin tightens his hold on his arms and bites back a growl, doesn't want to let Drifter get a rise out of him like this.

Drifter laughs mockingly and turns back to lean into his space, expression leery. "You don't care even when it's your own protege that's getting the bad hand dealt, do you? The Emissary and the Nine are playing around with them and their friends and you don't even care enough to know."

The last word barely hisses out of Drifter's lips before he's slammed against the wall with Shin's hand squeezing his throat till he chokes. His fingers itch to pull out a cannon and blow the Drifter's head open but he holds back. He snarls and slams the man again against the wall and hears the thud his head makes as it bounces against the bricks.

He aches and it pains him but Shin can't do shit about it. He knows Drifter gets visions, seen how the man goes empty eyed and unresponsive, fingers going lax and dropping things, sentences cut halfway out of his mouth and Shin _despises_ the way he looks. Hates when he comes back dripping in sweat with wild eyes and desperation enough to drown in.

It makes Drifter cling to him and that makes it even worse, beause Drifter doesn't ever touch him outside of their trysts and that guts him more than anything.

And now the Nine are after The Guardian and their friends and Drifter is freaking out and Shin can't do shit. Arguing with Drifter about it means nothing when neither can do something. Just the thought of them or someone else who shouldn't be involved getting visions and visits from the Emissary makes him sick.

Drifter wheezes when Shin lets him go, half dropping to his knees and taking rough breaths and eyes hazy. Shin slams his fist against the uneven bricks hard enough for blood to start running down his knuckles. He grits his teeth but says nothing as Drifter shakily pulls himself up.

He sits down on a crate and coughs, looking up at Shin carefully through his lashes like one would watch a wild animal. Shin bites his lip and turns around, hand dropping from the wall.

Silence drops between them, heavy and thick with accusation. Shin clenches his fists, pain flaring from his bloody knuckles. He takes one step forward and then another and another and he's ready to take the bend to the grate when he stops to transmat his helmet in his hands.

He hesitates and looks over to Drifter still sitting on the crate, fingers prodding around his head, still keeping a wary eye on him, and regret grips Shin suddenly.

"They can take care of themselves. I trust them enough to."

Drifter laughs bitterly and shakes his head and winces. "You would."

Shin frowns at him and glaces between the man and his helmet. He sets it on the table on the side and walks carefully back towards Drifter. The man tenses the closer Shin comes until he's stading to the Drifter's side, carefully praying fingers away to pull the headband back to check for blood.

He sees nothing and his own fingers barely find a small bump at the downwards slope of Drifter's skull. The man winces when Shin drags gentle fingers against it. He leans in and brushes his lips on Drifter's temple and draws back to settle the headband around the rogue's forehead.

Drifter is eyeing him oddly when he moves back. Shin tries to let go of Drifter's fingers still in his grasp but they grip back just when they were almost dropped. Shin's brow furrows and Drifter's tongue darts out to wet his lips and Shins's eyes are drawn to them before he looks back at Drifter's eyes.

"How can you trust them like that?"

The question catches him off guard and Shin blinks owlisly back at Drifter. How? They had proven themselves over and over against everything both people and universe has thrown at them, they haven't broken and they are walking forward still. Until they don't. Until they can't. Trusting them to keep going is all any of them can do.

"I have to."

Drifter deflates visibly and drops his hold on Shin's fingers. He scoffs and leans back against the wall.

"Ain't much to go on, hero."

Shin shrugs and tries not to look at the blood on Drifter's fingers from his knuckles. He picks his helmet and puts it on.

"Never said I had much to go on. I do what I have to. They do as well."

Drifter's sad and bitter laughter chases at his heels as he pulls up the grate to walk away. It leaves him a bit more hollow.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you all like!


End file.
